No, Blue Bikes aren't registered, and answers to more of your bike questions

I am not the only one who finds New Orleans’ archaic requirement for bike registration to be utterly ridiculous.

After local musician Kevin Louis ended up with nearly $1,000 in fines for various infractions committed while cycling — including $157.50 because his bike wasn’t registered — I wanted to find out just how difficult it was to obtain one of those little stickers for my set of wheels. After publishing my account, I got more than a dozen emails lamenting the arcane requirement that likely takes more time than it’s worth for most people.

“The city has a way of making something so simple so complicated,” wrote one reader.

Many others, however, posed questions, including one I heard over and over: Are the city’s new Blue Bikes registered?

In recent weeks, I’ve sent off requests for answers — and discovered the future of New Orleans’ bike registration.

In preparing the city for the coming wave of electric scooters, Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, who chairs the Transportation Committee, is offering new language for an ordinance that could be decided upon Thursday (Aug. 23). If passed, bike registration would no longer be mandatory, though the cost of it would increase from $3 to $5. Registration also would move out from under the New Orleans Police Department to Safety and Permits. Going through the rigmarole would allow cyclists a little back-up if, for example, their ride was ever stolen and discovered later, as Palmer said the law was originally intended to do.

Photo by Beau Evans, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

For now, however, let’s take a look at how the current ordinance has functioned.

So, are the Blue Bikes registered?

Nope. Despite the requirement, the city’s Blue Bikes are outside the confines of the law, and they will continue to be if Palmer’s ordinance gets the OK because it, too, requires rental bikes to be registered.

“We are working with the city and NOPD, and they’re trying to figure out how to get them registered,” said Blue Bikes New Orleans General Manager Geoff Coats. “It’s sitting on their plate.”

If every single one of those bikes was hit with the same fine as Louis received, the 700 bikes the program launched with would pump $110,250 into the city coffers.

I’ve got some ideas on what to do with that kind of cash, if anybody comes asking.

How many people are actually registering their bikes, anyway?

The NOPD reports that, in 2017, about 1,555 bike registrations were logged with the city. In 2018, through mid-July, registrations were up to about 1,950.

What’s the registration fee used for?

Well, if you were hoping it went toward bike safety education or filling potholes or striping bike lanes, your expectations are a little high. For one thing, the registration numbers mean that — assuming no cyclists who registered a bike in 2017 had their fee waived — we’re still only talking less than $5,000. The money, according to the NOPD, is about what it takes to print those stickers and the registration forms.

Do visitors to New Orleans need to have their bikes registered?

Again, nope. Current city law mandates only Orleans Parish residents are required to have their bikes registered. That means someone who cycles in from Metairie, Chalmette or Belle Chasse is free and clear to ride without a sticker.